People in the poker community often come up to me and ask about whatever is on their mind. Some of these questions are good questions, and some are bad beat stories in disguise. I’ve been through quite a few things in my poker career and I like to help whenever possible, and in this new Card Player series, I’d like to share my experiences and knowledge. Feel free to ask any poker-related question, and I’ll do my best to answer it in the space below.
Question: What the most tilting thing you see every day at the table from other players?
Gavin: I do my best to not let myself get tilted by the actions of the players around me, but there are some things that are pretty frustrating. The biggest of these things is slow play. I understand that some decisions take longer than others and that it’s important to be thorough when thinking through what has happened in a hand. However, there are limits. The other day, I was playing in a hand where I made it 20 preflop in a $5-$5 game with A
K. The guy to my left with about 350 in his stack flat called and it folded around to a guy who had around $1,300. He thought for about 90 seconds, talking to himself, hemming and hawing, pushing his cards forward and then pulling them back, taking out $20, then $40, then $60. Eventually he did make it $60. I would have completely understood if he took 10-15 seconds to act on his hand, but this was egregious. Another timing situation that really irks me is when there is a 3-way pot and player A has bet. Player B goes into the tank and eventually takes an action that doesn’t change the effective action. In other words, he calls or folds. Now it’s on Player C and he goes into the tank! What exactly were you doing while your opponent was thinking? While in a multi-way pot, I’m thinking of as many of the eventualities as I can come up with while the other players are acting so that I can be ready to act when it’s my turn.
The other major thing that upsets me is when one person is consistently slowing down the game. They are talking to someone on the phone and not acting on their hand, they’re watching TV, they’re talking to a friend on the rail, they’re eating. They’re doing whatever they can find besides playing poker and it consistently slows the game down. These people seem to think their time and desires are more important than others and that we shouldn’t mind waiting on them to play.
Question: I have come to the conclusion that I’m a pay off wizard. I’m a hero call specialist. Whatever you want to call it, I call it too often. How do you tell yourself to be less curious and just learn to press the fold button?
Gavin: This is something that I can relate to. I have played limit games for most of my life and in those games you have to pay off because the pot is so big compared to the bet you are facing at the end. You’re almost always getting at least 5-1 and often it’s much, much more than that. In those situations, it’s correct to call with pretty marginal hands. When I’ve been playing limit more often and get right into a no-limit tournament or cash game, I find myself making more marginal calls than I should, considering the price I’m getting. For me, it doesn’t have to do with curiosity. Instead, it’s a matter of habit.
One thing I do if I realize that I’m paying off too much on the river is take a little more time and think about the way the hand has gone down and my opponent’s likely range. I can often get myself on autopilot and think, “Oh, I have two pair, how can I fold this?” When what I should really be thinking is, “Is my two pair good against this person’s range?"
Now, considering my previous question and answer, I would discourage you from taking too much time thinking about the hand, especially on a consistent basis, but if you give yourself an extra 10-15 seconds to calmly think about what you know about your opponent and their tendencies and the way this particular hand has unfolded, you’ll find yourself making better river calls.
Question: I’m looking for advice for playing against maniacs. In the $2-$5 no-limit game I play in, there are a few rich business men. They always limp pre-flop, never fold to a raise and bet, bet, bet. I find myself in tricky spots often when I raise pre-flop to isolate these players with hands like K-Q, A-J, 9-9. If I flop top pair or an overpair, I’m often facing bets of full pot or more on each street. How do you play against such players? I never know where I am at in a hand. Sometimes, I find myself losing $700 on a king-high board where I have K-Q and my opponent flips over K-4 offsuit for two pair (after calling a big pre-flop raise).
The first thing I think you should do is to make your preflop isolation raises smaller. This will make the pot smaller and make you feel less squeamish when he makes big bets on every street. Other than that, I think there are two solutions to playing against opponents like this. First of all, you can fold the K-Q and wait until you really have this guy crushed and then let him stack off versus you. I don’t really like this option since it’s leaving value on the table, but it definitely cuts down on your swings. You won’t win quite as much, but you’ll win very big pots with your very big hands, which is encouraging. Secondly, you can just grit your teeth and call them down knowing that sometimes they are going to suck out with their K-4 or whatever and there’s not much you can do about that. This leads to you getting more value from your middle strength hands, but also introduces quite a bit more variance. Either way, make sure you’re comfortable with how you’re playing against these guys. If you’re not, consider not playing when they’re in the game as they might make you play worse overall.
If you have a question for Gavin, send it to editor@www.cardplayer.com.
